Criticise current politician hugging occasionally (6)
I believe the answer is:
impugn
'criticise' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'current politician hugging occasionally' is the wordplay.
'current' becomes 'i' (symbol for electric current).
'politician' becomes 'mp'.
'occasionally' indicates alternate letters.
The alternating letters of 'hugging' are 'ugn'.
'i'+'mp'+'ugn'='IMPUGN'
(Other definitions for impugn that I've seen before include "Attack as false, challenge" , "Try to discredit, express doubts about honesty" , "Blacken the name of" , "Attack verbally" , "Dispute the truth of" .)